Presidential hopeful, Alan Kyerematen, has said President John Mahama’s “bad leadership” is the cause of Ghana’s current economic difficulties.

The former Minister of Trade believes Ghana needs a president who can do the job in order to bring real transformation and prosperity to Ghanaians.

Addressing a group of professionals who paid a courtesy call on him at his campaign headquarters to celebrate his 59th birthday, Kyerematen said: “The country is currently facing difficult challenges as a result of bad leadership and the lack of technical knowledge and managerial skills on the part of the President”.

“Everywhere I have been to, across the country, I could feel the suffering of our people. The economy doesn’t seem like it is going to get any better soon, and we cannot as a country, continue on that path, things must be different after the 2016 elections”, he said Friday October 3.

According to the former Ambassador to the US, the West African country can only move forward in the right direction if the people chose a leader, who has a proven track record of creating wealth, jobs and has the skills to manage and execute affairs with precision.

“As Ambassador to the United States, I established the US-Ghana Economic Council to deepen economic relations and bilateral trade; negotiated the purchase of VALCO by the Ghana government at a cost of $20m; implemented the first Investment Forum in the US to showcase the economic potential of each of the 10 regions of Ghana; negotiated Cosmos Energy's arrival in Ghana to discover oil; and negotiated the release of $547m from the US government through the Millennium Challenge Accounts (MCA) to alleviate poverty in Ghana”, Kyeremanten recalled.

He added: “I built an $8.5 million state-of-the-art factory to produce high-grade industrial starch from cassava for export. The Ayensu Starch Factory has been bought by Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited (GGBL) this year, to produce beer for consumption. I also constructed an enclave within the Tema Free Zone, for the manufacturing of garments for export; revived the Oil Palm industry in Ghana; expanded the Salt mining operations; implemented the District Industrialisation Programme, where at least, one medium-sized factory in each administrative district would be built; initiated the highly successful “National Friday Wear” programme; implemented the Distance Education programme to enable Ghanaian workers acquire higher degrees; facilitated the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which offers Ghana, quota-free export of certain category of goods to the US market; and negotiated a $45 million loan facility with the World Bank to promote SME development in Ghana. These among others were done during my tenure as a Minister of Trade, Industry, & PSI”.

Mr Alan Kyerematen believes that, God willing, if given the nod to lead his party and country, he will be able to use his vast experience and skills to achieve the transformational agenda required to move the nation forward.